Djeidi Gassama’s Neymar story is easy to treat as a throwaway viral line: a young winger, a rondo, a nutmeg, and one of the most famous footballers of his generation taking it personally.
For Rangers, it should be read more seriously than that.
The 22-year-old has recalled how, during his Paris Saint-Germain academy years, he tried to nutmeg Neymar in training and was warned afterwards that he would not get away with it next time. The Scottish Sun reported the account on 1 July, with Gassama explaining that the incident came in front of senior PSG figures including Lionel Messi.
That is not a scouting report by itself. It does, however, reveal something useful about the environment that shaped him: high-status dressing rooms, brutal technical judgement, and the courage required to try something bold when the safest option would have been anonymity.
Rangers now need to decide whether that edge can become something more consistent under Derek McInnes.
Tuur Rommens, Djeidi Gassama and Thelo Aasgaard in our new @umbro away kit for 2026/27. Inspired By Ibrox.
— Rangers Football Club (@RangersFC) June 2026
The PSG story is really about nerve
Gassama’s route to Ibrox has never been ordinary. Rangers announced his signing from Sheffield Wednesday in July 2025, noting that he had joined PSG’s youth ranks in 2019 after coming through Brest’s academy pathway.
That background matters because PSG is not a gentle finishing school for young attackers. It is an environment where technical ability is assumed, not celebrated. A winger does not survive there by merely being neat. He has to keep showing personality in tight spaces, even when the senior players around him carry Ballon d’Or gravity.
The detail in the Neymar anecdote is not simply that Gassama tried the nutmeg. It is that he tried it at the moment the room was watching. That is the kind of risk profile Rangers have lacked too often in wide areas: the willingness to disturb a defender, force a reaction and accept that the first attempt may not come off cleanly.
McInnes will not want showboating without end product. No serious Rangers manager would. But he will want players who do not shrink from the ball when Ibrox becomes impatient. That is where the story carries some value.
It gives a glimpse of a player who has already been tested by status. The next task is turning that confidence into reliable production.
Rangers need Gassama to turn flashes into a role
The wide positions have become a serious part of the Rangers rebuild. ReadRangers has already examined how the Vaclav Cerny decision tests McInnes’ right-sided plan, because the manager has to choose between proven output, resale logic and the need for immediate attacking certainty.
Gassama sits in that same conversation, but from a different angle.
He is not the safe veteran option. He is not a pure academy punt either. He is a winger with elite-development exposure, Championship miles, European experience and enough physical spark to give Rangers a direct threat when matches become flat.
Sky Sports reported at the time of his move that the deal from Sheffield Wednesday was worth around GBP2.2million, with Gassama signing a four-year contract and a club option for another 12 months. That fee still looks like a developmental bet rather than a finished-product purchase.
That distinction is important. Rangers did not buy a complete final-third machine. They bought a player who should be capable of becoming one if his decision-making hardens.
- Technical base: PSG schooling gives him comfort receiving under pressure.
- Physical profile: his acceleration allows him to attack broken defensive lines.
- Contract control: the long deal protects Rangers if his value rises.
- Main weakness: the gap between threat and repeatable end product still needs closing.
That is why McInnes’ coaching detail matters. Gassama cannot be left as a moments player. Rangers need routes, timings and repeatable patterns that allow his one-v-one ability to appear in dangerous zones rather than harmless wide pockets.
The Cerny question makes Gassama more important, not less
If Rangers land a more experienced wide player, Gassama’s role does not disappear. It becomes more clearly defined.
The mistake would be framing him only as a starter-or-spare-part question. Modern squads need wingers who can change a match state. A player who can carry the ball 30 yards, win territory, break a low block or draw a second defender has value even when he is not the headline name on the team sheet.
That is particularly true for a McInnes side likely to be judged quickly. Rangers cannot spend August waiting for the attack to discover rhythm. They need wide players who understand when to hold shape, when to crash the far post and when to gamble.
Gassama’s challenge is to prove he can be trusted inside that structure. The Neymar anecdote shows appetite for risk. It does not yet prove maturity. There is a difference between having the nerve to embarrass a superstar in training and having the judgement to choose the right action in the 83rd minute at Pittodrie, Easter Road or Rugby Park.
That is the separator. Rangers already know Gassama has courage. They now need evidence of control.
McInnes has a clear coaching trade-off
Gassama’s profile presents McInnes with a familiar coaching trade-off: polish him too aggressively and the spark may dull; indulge him too much and Rangers risk another attacker whose best moments arrive too randomly.
The answer should sit between those extremes.
He needs freedom in the first action and discipline in the second. Let him receive early, face the full-back and attack space. Then demand a cleaner decision: cutback, shot, combination, recycle. The frustration with wide players usually comes when the first action is exciting and the second one is wasteful.
Rangers supporters will tolerate failed dribbles if they see purpose. They will not tolerate slow, decorative possession that allows opponents to reset. Gassama should be pushed toward aggression, but aggression with a destination.
That is where the PSG background becomes relevant again. Players raised around Neymar, Messi and Kylian Mbappe know the speed of elite attacking pictures. They see how quickly a half-yard appears and disappears. Rangers cannot recreate that dressing room, but they can demand that Gassama uses the education rather than simply referencing it.
The difference between a useful squad winger and a decisive Rangers player may be small. Two better decisions per match. One extra run beyond the full-back. A shot taken earlier. A cross delivered before the defence sets. These details decide whether the crowd feels momentum or impatience.
The verdict: this is a mentality test Rangers should lean into
There is no need to overinflate a training-ground story. Neymar being annoyed by a nutmeg does not make Gassama the answer to Rangers’ attacking rebuild.
But it does say something about the player Rangers are trying to refine.
He has lived around elite talent. He has taken risks in rooms where young players often hide. He has enough natural arrogance, in the football sense, to try things that can change a match. That is not a flaw if McInnes can put a frame around it.
The Rangers wing rebuild cannot be built on romance or highlight clips. It needs output, availability, tactical clarity and players who can handle the emotional temperature of Ibrox. Gassama’s Neymar story is useful because it points to one part of that equation: nerve.
Now comes the harder part.
Rangers need him to make that nerve count every week, not merely in a story from Paris.
Sources: The Scottish Sun, Rangers FC, Sky Sports. Featured image: Djeidi Gassama Rangers winger, existing ReadRangers media-library image.
